Where Are The Hands?

(1 Corinthians 12:1-31) That title might seem very odd, but it comes from the very passages in Corinthians as Paul talks about the body of Christ. The part that struck me most, is how some in a church feel no need to use the gifts God has given them to serve in the church. Even now, as I think about my own stepping back from some of my service at my church, I am concerned that I’m failing in being apart of the body. I do however think that being apart of the body of Christ is beyond the church local as we would typically think of church. I serve also with my gifts at my work place, which is also a place of ministry.

It would seem that it can be easily thought that if someone is not taking part in service in the church they attend that they are somehow wasting their God-given gifts, and not following the command of using those gifts as a part of the body of Christ. This would be a judgmental, and short-sided, failure if we are to do so without looking at how God is using them even outside of the local church. I think even I myself have gotten caught up in thinking that I was somehow failing if I wasn’t serving in some capacity in the local church.

We are brought back to what does it really mean to be apart of the body of Christ. The body of Christ encompasses the church global, meaning all followers of Christ through the world. That includes those in ministry outside of the typical local church. I have come to desire over the past many months, to have my fiath lived out daily as a part of the global church. I don’t want my spiritual walk to be limited to the doors of my local church building. As fellow believers we must step outside those walls of the church building and take and active role in this world. If we look at Christ’s example, He was not sticking to preaching in synagogues, His place of teaching was wherever a group gathered to hear from Him.

I truly pray that as believers in Christ, we are able to look outside of the comfort of our church buildings, and seek to reach those outside those walls. We are called to use our gifts for God’s purpose in the greater church body.

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Tim Nolte

A Christ-follower, husband, father, and Applications Developer with Sprint.